Oslo – 2010

The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the 55th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Oslo, Norway, following Alexander Rybak’s win at the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia with the song “Fairytale”.

It was the third time Norway had hosted the contest, having previously done so in 1986 and 1996.

The contest was broadcast from the Telenor Arena in Bærum, Greater Oslo, Norway.

The 2010 winner was Germany with Lena singing “Satellite”, written by American Julie Frost and Denmark’s John Gordon. It was Germany’s first win in twenty-eight years, its second since the Contest’s inception, and its first win as a unified country. It was also the first time a “Big Four” country won the contest since the rule’s introduction in 2000.

The semi-finals took place on 25 and 27 May 2010 while the final was scheduled for 29 May 2010.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that the voting system used in the semi-finals would change from previous years to balance jury voting with televoting. A return of accompaniment by orchestra was also proposed, but did not happen.

Thirty-nine countries took part in the contest.

A global financial crisis affected how the event was run; several countries elected not to compete due to budget cuts, and host broadcaster NRK sold its broadcast rights for the 2010 FIFA World Cup to TV 2 and Viasat to finance the event.